Show us your all electric phonographs!

[electrolaman]

I have been collecting phonographs in general since 1965. First as a teenager cylinder machines then disc horn machine and some upright machines. Then in 1993 while I was working as one of the theatre pipe organ crew members at Jasper Sanfilippo's.   Through Jasper's collection I was enlightened to the Orthophonic Victors, the Electrolas as well as other early all electric machines and automatic record changers. It was during this time I attended my first Union Phonograph Show where I met Joan and Robin Rolfs and became hooked on Nipper advertising as well. Around 2005 due to an economics downturn I was forced to sell most all of my phonograph collection to keep my theatre pipe organ restoration business afloat. However, in 2018 I have started collecting once again and this time mostly just all electric machines and automatic changers as well as continuing my Nipper advertising. I has been great to rekindle many past friendships!

 

So I will start this new Electric Machines category with the all electric reproduction machines in my present collection and invite other members to do the same.

 

Carlton Smith 

Indianapolis, IN

 

Victor Talking Machine Company:

VE12-1E                Electrola “Cromwell”                                               1925-26

VE8-60E             Orthophonic/Electrola                                            1927

VE9-25E              Electrola / Radiola 28                                              1927

VE10-70E             Automatic Electrola         (1st gen.)                     1927

VE7-26X               Electrola / Radiola 18                                              1928

VE9-16E                Electrola / Radiola 18                                              1928

VE10-69E             Automatic Electrola         (2nd gen.)                   1928

VE12-15E               Electrola                                                                    1928

 

Victor Division- RCA Victor Company:

RE-57                     Victor Micro-Synchronous Radio with Electrola   1930

 

RCA Victor Company:

RAE-26                  Radio /Automatic Electrola                                 1931

341 DUO              Radio / Automatic Electrola (3rd gen.)              1934

R-99                       Electrola                                                                   1936

V225                      Radio /  RP-151 record changer                           1941

 

Brunswick Corporation:

P-13                       Panatrope                                                                 1927

Model 42             Radio / Automatic Panatrope                              1930

 

Capehart:

114N                      Radio / 42E Changer                                              1947

 

[Valecnik]

Wow you have some beautiful pieces there.  I guess I know where the "Electrolaman" comes from!

[Tinfoilphono]

Incredibly impressive collection! These are such imposing and beautiful machines -- and heavy!

[electrolaman]

18 hours ago, Tinfoilphono said:

Incredibly impressive collection! These are such imposing and beautiful machines -- and heavy!

Thanks! ?

[electrolaman]

So here are 3  more Electrolas in my collection.  Not all of them are restored and at home yet.

 

Here goes the list in this post:

VE12-15E Electrola [1928]I

VE7-26A Electrola/Radiola 18 [1928]

VE9-25E Electrola with Radiola 28 [1927]

 

Carlton Smith

electrolman

[Fran604g]

Wonderful collection, Carlton! When I was 14 or 15, my friend and I discovered an Electrola like your VE7-26A in the attic of our Society of Friends meeting house. The building had previously been the rectory for the neighboring Catholic church next door. At some point the Electrola had been retired to the attic and forgotten.

 

My friend's mother struck a deal and we wound up with it. All that was necessary was a little cleaning, and routine servicing and we brought her back to life. That was in 1972 or 73. Sadly many years later (and unknown to me) he was forced to sell it.

 

That was my 1st exposure to the wonderful world of antique phonographs, and I'll never forget the joy it brought us when we fired her up the 1st time!

[ksnowden]

Carlton, you've done a remarkable job of rebuilding your collection.

 

[Bruce]

Amazing collection!  Just one of these beautiful machines would be the center piece of any collection.

 

Bruce

[dyxshop]

Great!very nice ?

[fmlondon]

I still hope to acquire an RAE-79 someday!

[audiophile102]

All my phonographs have spring motors, but I always wanted a radio / phonograph electrola.  I recently I started watching radio electronics expert Mr Carlson's Lab - YouTube .  Looking at the bottom of old radios used to remind me of a bowl of spaghetti and meat balls.  Slowly, I'm getting a better understanding of how to repair a radio.  I'm thinking of starting out small by experimenting with a small table radio and slowly working towards a Victor phonograph / radio combination.  I wonder how hard it is to find parts for the more common Victor machines.  I see Electrola RE45 and RE57 machines for sale in my area, but I have no idea how hard it is to find parts.   I know that special electronic testing machines are required to repair electrolas.  Which ones are best for the novice to buy?  Just dipping my big toe into this branch of the hobby is quite interesting.  I need to find some reading material to supplement all the videos on YouTube.  Your machines are quite beautiful and I'm grateful that you added them to the forum.

[electrolaman]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:30 AM, audiophile102 said:

All my phonographs have spring motors, but I always wanted a radio / phonograph electrola.  I recently I started watching radio electronics expert Mr Carlson's Lab - YouTube .  Looking at the bottom of old radios used to remind me of a bowl of spaghetti and meat balls.  Slowly, I'm getting a better understanding of how to repair a radio.  I'm thinking of starting out small by experimenting with a small table radio and slowly working towards a Victor phonograph / radio combination.  I wonder how hard it is to find parts for the more common Victor machines.  I see Electrola RE45 and RE57 machines for sale in my area, but I have no idea how hard it is to find parts.   I know that special electronic testing machines are required to repair electrolas.  Which ones are best for the novice to buy?  Just dipping my big toe into this branch of the hobby is quite interesting.  I need to find some reading material to supplement all the videos on YouTube.  Your machines are quite beautiful and I'm grateful that you added them to the forum.

Hello, Glad to hear you are interested in the later all electric phonographs. You will need a reliable volt/ ohm meter. Digital meters are not the best as they sometime do not like reading coils like are in the electric pickups. A Capacitor reading meter is also a good thing to have. Although it is best to just replace the capacitors. You do need to be aware that the power transformers usually have very high voltage output sections sometimes as much as 750 volts. 

 

Carlton Smith

 Indianapolis, IN  

[electrolaman]

It has been awhile since I have added photos of recent acquisitions to my electric phonograph collection. so here goes.

 

 

Sparton Sparks Ensemble Model 101    Radio/ Automatic Phonograph   [1929]

Zenith Model 37 A                      Radio / Phonograph                                       [1928-1929]

RCA Victor  331 DUO                  Radio / Automatic Phonograph                  [1933]

RCA Victor V225                          Radio / Automatic Phonograph                  [1941-42]

Victor RE-75                                 Radio / Electrola                                              [1929-1930]

  

[audiophile102]

Thanks for the advice regarding equipment and the power of the transformers.  Your collection is amazing and I had to wonder which one has the best sound?   Do you have an AM transmitter? I always thought it would be great to hear radio dismuke from a restored period radio. https://radiodismuke.com/

[electrolaman]

9 hours ago, audiophile102 said:

Thanks for the advice regarding equipment and the power of the transformers.  Your collection is amazing and I had to wonder which one has the best sound?   Do you have an AM transmitter? I always thought it would be great to hear radio dismuke from a restored period radio. https://radiodismuke.com/

 

Well I did have a am transmitter once. In fact I have tried twice to use one. I built a kit the first time and a couple of years ago tried one of the "talking House" transmitters the real-estate people use. Same problem occurred. There is something in my house wiring that puts out terrible noise in the  AM RF. I looked and eliminated the usual suspects like dimmers and door bell transformers and nada, so I gave up. 

 

Carlton 

[audiophile102]

Thats too bad.  I understand that you decided to drop the issue, but I did a quick internet search and found two pages addressing the issue which I found interesting.  First is a link.  https://www.planetofsoundonline.com/pages/fixing-hums-noise-radio-interference-in-your-system.   This is a list from another page I found which is quite long.    

 

Since this piece is focused on how to improve AM radio reception at home, we’ve narrowed down the list of domestic appliances known to produce radio signals that may interfere with radio reception.

These include:

Vacuum cleaners

TV’s

Microwave ovens

Fluorescent lights

Cell phone chargers

Electric blankets

Scanners

Christmas lights

Electronic bug zappers

Electric motors

Monitors and computers

Ultrasonic motion detectors

Incandescent lights

Electrostatic air purifiers

Confirming that one or more of these appliances is the cause of interference is much easier if you have a portable radio. You’d have to get your radio closer to a microwave oven for example, and observe whether or not the buzzing sound increases as you get closer to it.

[CurtA]

Just put a Bluetooth speaker inside a radio cabinet and play Radio Dismuke from your phone (or iPad/computer) with no interference.  I play RadioD in my car with a Bluetooth receiver through the car speakers with my phone.  A good app for your phone is Radio Garden - all types of music from all over the world for free...

[electrolaman]

14 hours ago, CurtA said:

Just put a Bluetooth speaker inside a radio cabinet and play Radio Dismuke from your phone (or iPad/computer) with no interference.  I play RadioD in my car with a Bluetooth receiver through the car speakers with my phone.  A good app for your phone is Radio Garden - all types of music from all over the world for free...

 

Hey Curt,  Not a bad suggestion for some, but that misses the point of listening through the vintage radio. LOL! 

Carlton 

[CurtA]

I guess that's why I never collected radios... all they play is rap or talk shows.🤪

 

I'm sure it would be possible to hard wire a microphone jack into an old radio so you could plug your phone directly into the system and play whatever you want through the vintage amp and speakers...  I like old time radio shows and imagine that they would sound more authentic played through an antique radio.

[CurtA]

 

 

"I'm sure it would be possible to hard wire a microphone jack into an old radio so you could plug your phone directly into the system and play whatever you want through the vintage amp and speakers..."

 

Here's how:

 

 

[Percy_Dovetonsils]

Carlton... I see you have a 331 Duo. I do too, and I love it, but for one annoying issue that has been dogging me in the five years I have had it... low volume.

I got it all recapped, etc., but have never been able to really listen to records on it unless volume is up about 3/4 or more. While it sounds fine, I know this is absolutely not right and it bugs me no end just because of that.

 

I had the pickup redone by a good friend and fidelity is awesome. I've also replaced the tubes with all NOS multiple times and replaced the speaker with a Canton permanent magnet unit using the field coil choke (I think) from the original one.

 

A couple days after I got the pickup back, I suddenly had great fidelity and volume at about the halfway mark. It sounded fantastic for about a week, then went back to its old tricks where it has remained. It's incredible how MODERN this machine sounded during that time... most impressive indeed.

 I have examined the chassis with a magnifier and can find no real red flags, but then, I am not at all experienced on these things.

Any ideas?

Thanks much

 

Percy aka gramophone-georg on TMF

[Tony]

If anyone could give me some information on this I'd appreciate it. 

[L4tD]

The Panatrope P-3 was one of the earliest models of Brunswick's electrical phonograph.  The P-3 was installed in several of the company's existing acoustical cabinets.  In this case, it is installed in the Chippendale cabinet.  The earliest examples were converted by removing the old acoustical components and replacing them with the new Panatrope equipment.  Brunswick sent technicians to convert these in the field, and by updating the phonographs already in distributor stock, Brunswick was likely able to beat Victor in delivering a modern electrical phonograph.  I expect that the vast majority of the P-3 Panatropes were assembled at the factory in new cabinets rather than converted from existing complete acoustical phonographs.